With a busy schedule slated for Wednesday, Ridgecrest’s city council will be provided a thorough update of the Tax Allocation Bonds by city staff.

More than 18 months after the last time the council discussed the matter, council will be asked to review all the lists and move forward with recommendations for the upcoming fiscal year.

In December, the city received a letter from the California Department of Finance, releasing $21 million of $24 million in bond money following a lengthy dispute over a $3 million item related to the former Ridgecrest Redevelopment Agency.

The state DOF released the funds after accepting $3 million of the TAB funds to “settle” the RDA dispute.

The problem now facing the city is now sorting through a number of project lists approved by past councils.

“In anticipation of the release of the funds, staff requests that the City Council revisit the previous project list and assign more specific dollar amounts to specific projects and authorize staff to proceed with the implementation in accordance with two minute motions from July 18, 2012,” states the staff report for the agenda item.

The bond, totaling $34.38 million, included approximately $24.9 million in spending cash. The last list approved by the 2012 council included sinking $13 million into street projects, spending money on public improvements in the area around the long-awaited Walmart Supercenter construction site, $2.5 million for upgrades to the Kerr McGee Youth Sports Complex on Downs Street, and $2 million for economic development projects.

The amended list in 2014 include projects for encumbered funds relating to past earmarked projects for a total of $1.86 million, including traffic signals at China Lake Boulevard and Upjohn Avenue, road improvement projects, and paying off balance for some improvements to the city’s parks.

Another recommendation includes the execution of a three-year spending plan on streets as recommended in the city’s Pavement Management System. The amount recommended is $6.47 million, with the street projects utilizing alternative pavement techniques.

“We may proceed with the alternative list,” said Karen Harker, administrative analyst for the city’s public works department, during a press briefing on Monday. “The alternative list included what Dennis (Speer) has been proposing and showing to the infrastructure committee and the council many, many times.”

The list of streets include ones that could benefit from alternative treatments like micropaving or cape seals, rather than a full reconstruction.

While the list is a good roadmap, Speer, the city manager and public works director, has stressed in past interviews that it’s still open to change.

Harker said that the list, if approved as part of the TAB package, benefits the city’s rough roads.

“This will take some dents out of the roads,” Harker said.

Page 2 of 2 - Some of the roads that might benefit from TAB fund include Sunland Avenue, which has been on the list. Sunland Avenue reconstruction had been on the initial bond list for $500,000. The city council, in January, approved funding to merge and complete the design specifications for a shovel-ready project to reconstruct Sunland from Ridgecrest Boulevard to Upjohn Avenue.

Mayor Dan Clark, on Monday, said that the current city council may need to take a look at the list and consider the alternative options.

“Reconstruction takes a lot of money, while cape sealing and micropaving isn’t nearly as much,” Clark said. “We can do so much more roadwork.”

He said the challenge for the council is “do we do as many streets as we can with micropaving, or do we work on the worst ones that need reconstruction but only do a minimal number of streets because of that cost?”

Also included in the recommendation is a procedural move to pay the California DOF $2.99 million as part of the settlement over the RDA dispute.

As part of the TAB process, the council will also be asked to approve a minute motion to recognize the unanticipated revenue.

City Finance Director Rachelle McQuiston called it a procedural move that is done with any unanticipated revenue the city receives.

“Basically what I did was look a schedule of the projects and asked what we could spend in this fiscal year,” McQuiston said.

The money will be split up into four fund accounts:

• $1.5 million for parks and recreations, economic development and Chamber of Commerce anticipated expenditures for FY 2014;

• $2 million for road improvements anticipated for FY 2014;

• $18.87 million into the Capital Projects for future budget year expenditures;

• $2.99 million to settle the RDA dispute.

McQuiston said the TAB money being stashed in the Capital Projects fund will stay there “until the city can figure out for next fiscal year what we can spend and allocate for future budget years.”

Whatever can’t be spent before the bond’s deadline may likely be funneled into a tax exempt bond for future use, McQuiston said.

“When we present (this list), we hope that there will not be anyone who might want to change or comment on how it was originally allocated,” McQuiston said. “We hope to have the list approved so we can move on. If there is too much discussion on it, it will hold up spending, and we’re afraid we may lose some of it.”